The Promise of Amazon’s Tablet Ecosystem Rests on the Cloud
This morning the world finally got its first glimpse of Amazon’s new tablet, a device expected to be a true contender with the Apple iPad due to its digital publishing front, app store and other retail efforts all contributing to Amazon’s booming ecosystem. The Amazon Kindle Fire has a 7-inch IPS ultra-wide display, dual-core processor and weighs 14.6 ounces.
Jeff Bezos opens the NYC event with a graph comparing sales of physical books with Kindle books. Doing it the Amazon way, the Y-axis wasn’t labeled so as to not reveal the exact figure. Before introducing the tablet, he first revealed Kindle Touch, a simpler version of the Kindle, eliminating the keyboard and replacing it with a touchscreen. Touch will sell for $99 and the other version with 3G will be priced at $149. Bezos follows the Touch with another Kindle available for only $79 but it’s not touchscreen. “We’re going to sell many millions of these,” Bezos said.
Amazon’s CEO went on promoting Amazon Prime for $79 a year, and rumor has it that the company might offer the service free to Kindle Fire buyers.
Then Bezos finally said “It’s called Kindle Fire,” marking the ingress of the new tablet. He said the content of the Fire will be backed up on the Amazon Cloud, slightly mocking Apple with a picture of an Apple USB flashed on the screen while at the same time boasting that Kindle Fire will automatically sync content via wireless connectivity.
“And all of the content on this device is backed up in the cloud so you can delete things when you want. That model that you need to back up is a broken model.” Like the Nook Color, the device features 169 pixels per inch.
The demo comes after, showing X-Men, some Rolling in the Deep by Adele and the game Fruit Ninja to showcase the power of the device’s dual-core processor. Its web browser is called Amazon Silk. The device will sell for $199, cheaper than early guesses. “We’re building premium products at non-premium prices,” Bezos said. Shipping starts on November 15.
Right after Amazon introduced the Kindle Fire, stocks at Barnes & Noble went down by 9 percent.
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